8vo. (Gift inscription on front free endpaper, slight toning to text block edges.) Original dark brown cloth-textured boards, upper cover blindstamped with skeletal hand design (Gilbert’s Binding A); dust jacket (spine panel toned with some chips at ends, flap folds and edges a bit toned).

FIRST EDITION, FIRST IMPRESSION, First Issue of Fleming's ninth Bond book, and his eighth full-length Bond novel. It was the first Bond novel to be based on a screenplay, written by Fleming, Kevin McClory and Jack Whittingham: the credit was shared between the three co-writers after McClory and Whittingham took Fleming to court, shortly before his publication of the novel. Gilbert A9a (1.1).